As governments invest in technologies to provide remote services, significant trends are emerging that will shape the future of GovTech. The importance of GovTech – a whole-of-government approach to public sector digitization – has been underscored by recent global challenges, highlighting the need for efficient and resilient systems. NRD Companies has identified key trends that will influence GovTech projects moving forward.
Remote Collaboration
The development of e-government systems has become increasingly crucial. Recent global challenges have reinforced the need for GovTech solutions as countries seek to deliver efficient public services. Remote collaboration has emerged as a necessary component for successful GovTech project implementation.
An exemplary case is Developers’ Hub (D’Hub) in Trinidad and Tobago, led by the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT), which accelerates digital transformation through pillars like Digital Society and Digital Economy. It fosters collaboration on a virtual platform for open-source solutions, enhancing government services. Recognized as a WSIS Champion 2024 and awarded by the Inter-American Development Bank, D’Hub exemplifies innovation in public sector digitization.
The project, implemented remotely by NRD Companies with just three field missions, demonstrates the potential of remote collaboration in executing large-scale digital transformation projects.
As tools, processes, and software constantly improve, it has become possible to implement large-scale GovTech projects entirely remotely, regardless of location and time zones. Of course, consulting and implementing projects remotely is significantly more complex than doing it the usual way, thus when choosing partners, countries should consider their experience in working with such projects.
Shift to Cloud
Many governments around the world still rely on physical, premise-based data centers. These centers require careful management and are vulnerable to various risks such as fire, smoke, moisture, flood, pollution, and data leakages. As governments handle increasing amounts of sensitive data, storing it in bare metal servers is becoming too risky.
The limitations of legacy systems are going to encourage a shift to cloud. It is no longer safe and practical to store data on physical servers, especially as more governments choose the digitization path. Moving to the cloud is the next logical step, providing more resilience, cost savings, and innovation. While the private sector has led this transition, the public sector is now accelerating its adoption.
In particular, private clouds are now on the rise. Recent studies predict that governments will shift to private clouds at twice the rate of public clouds. For example, the German federal government, the French Ministry of the Interior, and several Swedish government agencies have transitioned to private clouds to ensure control and security.
Other countries are also adopting similar cloud solutions. Partnering with NRD Companies, Anguilla, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, will implement its electronic system for the Commercial Registry on a hybrid cloud—a combination of on-premises infrastructure, private, and public clouds—to ensure availability in a cost-effective way.
Positive Influence of Electronic Business Registries
The private sector is crucial in a country’s fight against poverty through investment and job creation. Where an effective private sector is lacking, business registration reform has been shown to be one of the essential first steps toward improving the business environment and fostering private sector growth. The easier, faster, and cheaper the business registration process becomes, the higher the number of businesses in an economy.
A notable example is Belize, where the government aimed to improve its ease of doing business by reforming its Business Registry services. The goal was to consolidate and modernize both domestic and foreign business registries into a unified system, aligning with international standards. The Government of Belize implemented an electronic, online registry system that allows for the creation and maintenance of all companies via a single unified platform. This transformation increased the attractiveness of the country to investors and provided growth opportunities to Belize’s economy.
When local businesses flourish, they create jobs and generate income that can be spent and invested domestically. And for the businesses to flourish, favourable conditions must be ensured by the government. This is where digitization can help tremendously – online business registries streamline the whole process of formally registering one's business and at the same time level the playing ground. As long as governments continue developing online business registration registries, it is no brainer that their economic segments will only improve.
The new, all-digital, and fully paperless Belize registry system ensures effortless collaboration of governmental entities and removes redundant manual paperwork in different institutions. It also transforms the way the public interacts with those institutions involved in starting a business by reducing repeated information sharing, securing data verification, and enhancing transparency. As a result, Belize’s Online Business Registry System (OBRS) was selected as a WSIS Prize 2023 Champion in the category of E-Business – ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life, recognizing its exemplary execution in leveraging ICTs for sustainable development.
These trends in remote collaboration, cloud adoption, and the implementation of electronic business registries illustrate the ongoing evolution of GovTech. As governments worldwide embrace these innovations, they not only enhance service delivery and operational efficiency but also foster economic growth and resilience in the face of future challenges.
